美国大学申请essay书写指南
现如今,很多学生选择去美国读大学,那么文书材料的准备也很关键,其中有一项留学申请essay,想必大家还不是很了解。下面随我爱学习网小编一起来看看以下的内容。
首先来看看essay的书写步骤。
1. 早作准备
这不是一般的家庭作业或学校项目,而有可能是你人生的转折点。一份得体的essay能帮你进入著名学府并改变你的生活。
早做准备指的是,你需要在学校申请截止日前至少三个月开始写essay。只有这样你才有机会更改主题,修改essay,反复阅读,让别人进行评价和精心选择每一个单词。
对于那些申请了多家大学的学生,有些大学可能需要补充essay,这需要你花费大量的时间。此外,全世界很多高中高年级学生都会被各种压力所压垮,包括毕业考试,所以早早准备essay会让你具备优势。
2.多打几次草稿,多尝试几个主题
大多数成功的申请人都是打好几个草稿然后选出最喜欢的那份。这个道理相当于在从事一件工作时,例如一项新的体育项目,要求你投入大量练习时间,直到你进步到足以开始比赛。
写essay同样如此。对于大多数外国学生,这是他们第一次严肃地写一篇文章,更别说用外语写了。开头几个草稿将非常困难,你要坚持写下去,直到你的essay完美无瑕。
记住,每份草稿不一定都要围绕同一个主题。如果某个主题比较好的话,你可以围绕它准备两三份essay,或者必要时更换主题。
3.寻找一个你信赖的人校对每一份essay
这能让你发现你的essay里可能的错误。强烈建议你找一个在英语写作方面非常有经验的人来帮你完成这项工作,并且—最重要的是—真心愿意帮你的人。
校对者必须是对于申请过程了解十分深入的人,例如美国大学学生或者现役或前任大学招生官,或者是有多年英语写作经验的教育工作者。
一旦他们指出有些东西你需要修改,无论是关于essay的内容还是主题的,你需要立即修改或重写。如果得到了他们的肯定,那么你就可以提交了。
4. 阅读成功的essay范例
这并不是鼓励你直接把别人的点子拿过来。但是,阅读成功申请人的essay可以让你了解大学招生官需要的信息是什么。
小A在开始她的个人陈述之前,为找不到能给招生官留下深刻印象的东西感动非常苦恼。当她通过谷歌读到一些成功进入常春藤大学的学生写的essay时–她了解到这些学生主要是基于非常简单的个人趣事展示出了自己独特的性格。
之后小A选择了一个简单而又意义的主题:照顾她卧病在床的父亲。小A的essay非常感人,几位招生负责人甚至手写了回信表扬她并邀请她进入华盛顿与李大学。
5. 遵从故事的结构
作为作者,你要记住,高质量的essay建立在一般性的故事结构上,诸如情节的发展、高潮和结局。
大学申请essay当然不需要像动作电影那样,但也必须使读者经历好奇、惊叹和满足三个阶段。此外,还需要保证读者被牢牢吸引而不被一些不重要的细节或繁冗内容分心。
最好的办法是,把可能让整个故事显得混沌的句子或场景去掉。记住,每个招生官都要看海量的essay,所以你的故事如果引人入胜,那你就能脱颖而出。
接着来看看书写技巧都有哪些。
言简意赅,避免啰啰嗦嗦。
每一个句子都应该精简到只保留它的基本部分。任何冗余或者不能增加新意的词语都应该删除。当你把文章精简并删掉不必要的词和短语时,文章的质量就得到了提高。要知道,招生委员会在审核期间,要短时间内面对那么多essay,他是没有时间来看啰啰嗦嗦,没有主次的文章的。
表述要精确。
任何时候都要尽可能详尽而又具体。细节能让你的作品更具真实性。对于要表述的内容,想要表达的思想要精确的表达出来,感染到读者,让读者信服,从而体现文章的真实性。
主题要明确。
申请的时候,学校给出的essay题目都是有很强的针对性的,所以,在撰写essay之前一定要想清楚这个题目的隐含意义,了解学校想通过这篇文章考察你什么。然后在动笔,这样写出来的文章才有针对性,而不会偏离目标。有的时候题目显得很简单,但是事实上这类题目是最不好写的,因为简单的一句话让人很难摸清楚他们的出题思路和意图,对这类的题目反而要更加注意。
各篇essay之间要相辅相成。
一般来讲,每所学校会要求3-5篇essay,每篇essay考察的目的是不同的,因此,在动笔之前要想好写作的思路和结构。在一篇文章中已体现的重点就不要在另一篇文章中出现,否则几篇文章写下来却只反映了一个特点,很多优势没有展示出来,这样,录取委员会就不会看到一个完整优异的你,从而不能决定是否录取你。
保持同一风格和语调。
在开始动笔之前,你就要决定好采用怎样的风格和语调,并在整篇短文中一以贯之。如果你在短文开头部分的语调是轻松和幽默的,就不要突然在短文中间转变为忧郁或者严厉的语调。如果你打算把自己的短文写成是个人日记风格的,就不要突然开始向局外的读者吹嘘自己。
多修改。
无论是本科还是商学院对essay一般都有字数上的限制,如此多的内容要归纳到那么少的文字中,如何能把每句话都说到点子上,让每个字都发挥其作用还是有一定难度的。当一篇文章写好之后,一定要回头仔细阅读,认真推敲每个句子,同时也可以给自己的朋友和家人看,让他们也多提提意见。一篇好的文章是需要反复多次修改才能“完美”呈现出来的。
最后给大家带来一篇范文赏析。
Cornell—Pose a question that you wish that we had asked you and answer it. Heather posed the question: Tell about an activity that is particularly meaningful to you.
Yale—Please write an essay about an activity or interest that has been particularly meaningful to you.
Early on a June afternoon, I stood in the arena at Willows Farm. I was about to take my very first horse-riding lesson. I was excited, yet incredibly fearful at the same time. I&apos&aposd never actually ridden a horse by myself. Being led around on one of ponies at the fair didn&apos&apost count. I tried talking to myself. "What did/have to fear? After all, it certainly looked easy." I waited white one of the older girls finished in the arena. I&apos&aposd never seen such a big horse, and each time as they went around, the horse looked bigger and bigger.
When my lesson was finally ready to start, Aggie, my teacher, brought out a small pony named Kissy. She was so cute and little, I breathed a sigh of reli. I was convinced that I could handle the situation. "No problem," I thought, "I&apos&aposll be off to the races in no time."
That lesson began with the basics. First I had to learn to put on the bridle and saddle. Then I had to learn to get on and off. That proved to be a challenge, but by the time the lesson finished, I was allowed to "ride" Kissy by walking around in a circle a few times. Sitting there looking down, I knew I was As John Irving once said, "There is something in bestriding a fine horse that makes a man (or woman) feel more than mortal".
Little did my parents know that one lesson would turn into an obsession. I spent all day out at the bam. I&apos&aposd probably have stayed the night if my parents had allowed it. I did everything that I could do to learn - I cleaned stalls, walked horses, brushed horses, and fed some twice just to spend a few extra minutes out there. Over the next two years I attended local horse camps and watched others to see if they knew something that I could apply to my riding.
Eventually,I outgrew Kissy and my first trainer. The next step was to move up with the more advanced riders and to Sherry, the next trainer at the barn. Most of the more advanced
:rs owned their own horses. Switching trainers was the easy part. Convincing my parents buy me a horse proved to be slightly more difficult.
Aggie talked to them and told them how much I wanted a horse. Sherry talked to them, and told them how much I needed a horse. Nothing seemed to work. Over the dinner table, the conversation kept coming back to how much money was involved in buying and keeping a horse, but I didn&apos&apost give up. I kept asking. "A horse" was first on my Christmas list, first on my birthday list, and everything in between.
In the spring, a cute little quarter horse named Cat came into the barn. He was there to be sold, hopully to someone in the barn. He was a good mover and seemed to have a sweet personality. The first time I saw him. I bonded. I had to have this horse. There was just one small problem, my parents were still saying no. Aggie seemed to want me to have a horse as much as I wanted it. She even offered to cut my parents a deal on the board. Every time my mother came to pick me up. I was brushing, walking, or doing something for Cal. I&apos&aposd ask her to hold and talk to him for a few minutes while I got "something ready" bore I put him away. I could feel my mother melting. Finally one evening I heard the wonderful words. My parents agreed to purchase Cal. I had my very own horse. I was thrilled, and went to work with a brush and comb to make him look as good as he made me feel.
As much as I thought differently, I wasn&apos&apost quite prepared for the enormous responsibility of actually owning a horse. There was feeding, grooming, daily exercise, and stall cleaning to worry about. Becoming a good hunter-jumper meant spending long hours out at the barn. Getting good grades in school meant putting in long hours for homework. I had to learn to balance both. To get it all done, it was mandatory that I become organized and learn to focus on what I was doing in order to make the most of my time spent.
Riding has also presented a means of learning other valuable lessons. Foremost has been accepting responsibility. Owning Cal has meant that I&apos&aposve had the care of a living, breathing animal that depended on me. I couldn&apos&apost take a day off, even if I felt that I had something better to do. Dedication to the sport of riding has also been a learned skill. After the hardest fall or a bad day when nothing seemed to go right, I sometimes wanted to quit right on the spot. That was when I had to get myself back on track and do it again until I got it right. Those same lessons have carried over to school. If I&apos&aposve gotten less than u perfect grade on something or have found something difficult to understand. I&apos&aposve learned that I can&apos&apost just throw in the towel or blame it on the teacher. My education has become my responsibility, and I have had to go back and try twice as hard to prove to myself that I can do if.
In my ten years of riding and competing, I have never grown tired of it. I still have my little horse. We have competed and won at many horse shows, and we&apos&aposve grown to love and trust each other. My trainer often rerred to him as my best friend, and I&apos&aposve come to think of him that way too. Sometimes it is fun to lie in bed at night and look at the ribbons hanging on my wall. I know that every day that passes now brings me closer to the "someday" when it will come to an end. When it does,I will have the memories of the great times I&apos&aposve had and the lessons that I&apos&aposve learned, but most of all. I will have the memory of a little horse with a big heart named Cal.
推荐阅读:
相关推荐: